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The Libra Room

For my sister’s birthday, we decided to go out for dinner at The Libra Room. We went on a week night, so the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy. There was live jazz pianist playing. The Libra Room on Commercial Drive is the place to be for live music every night while having dinner or drinks.

As I had a Groupon for 2 consisting of 1 appetizer and 2 entrees to be selected from the main menu, we decided to order an additional appetizer to share as there were 3 of us and we weren’t too hungry.

For the appetizers, we decided on the mussels with a spicy chorizo, fresh garlic and tomato sauce and the nachos topped with cajun chicken. For the main entrees, we ordered the red wine braised lamb shank and the seafood linguini. My sister’s been to The Libra Room before, and she had recommended both the mussels and seafood linguini as they both were great sharing dishes.

The first dish to arrive was the mussels, topped with grilled baguette and potato frittes. The mussels were cooked quite well, juicy and plump, with the right amount of spice from the sauce. I wasn’t a huge fan of the potato frittes, prefering the traditional fries instead. The baguette was a great way to dip into the remaining sauce afterwards.

Next came the Seafood Linguini, which consisted of scallops, prawns, mussels, fresh tomato, capers, garlic and dill pesto, in a cream sauce. I really enjoyed the amount of seafood you get with the pasta, and the portion size was pretty big for sharing. The seafood was quite fresh and the cream sauce was quite light and did not feel heavy.

The Red Wine Brasied Lamb Shank arrived shortly after the pasta. It came with candied vegetables such as carrots, green beans and eggplant, and saffron basmatic rice. I really enjoyed how the lamb shank meat fell off the bone when I dug my fork in. Nice and tender, with the right amount of red wine sauce, I would order this again. I wish I had a few more vegetables though.

The nachos came last, which was a bit confusing since it’s considered an appetizer, so I expected it the same time as the mussels. It was the only thing we did not really like. When the nachos arrived, the salsa and sour cream were piled on one side of the nachos – right on top of the chips. It was hard to get at the rest of the nachos that were smoothered in sour cream and salsa. The cajun chicken was a bit dry, so wasn’t as delicious as we had anticipated. In the future, we’ll be skipping this dish. However if you do want nachos, ask for the sour cream and salsa on the side and skip the chicken.

Overall, the Groupon makes this visit a great deal, especially with the live music to accompany the delicious meal. Make reservations ahead of time if you are coming later in the evenings or on weekends. Highly recommend their mussels and seafood linguini.